New GM of Gustav Wolf Wire Rope (Suzhou) Co., Ltd

上传日期：2017-02-10 播放次数：227

访谈人物介绍

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: What made you choose Gustav Wolf Suzhou?

Thomas Scholz: I connected with Gustav Wolf in 2007 when it first started in China. The company is a family- owned business with 130 years’ history. It’s a leading German brand in the elevator wire rope business worldwide, all of these factors attracted me here in the first place.

Secondly, I am interested in further developing the company, especially taking on some responsibilities in sales and marketing in order to expand our business.

Thirdly, I have lived and worked in Suzhou for more than 16 years, and because of my long-time relationship with the city, returning to Suzhou, China feels like coming back home.

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: After spending the last few months managing Gustav Wolf Suzhou, what do you think of the company?

Thomas Scholz: After 5 months of leading the company, we have put a great deal of effort into the implementation of the 5S management method. Customer relationship management is now put into practice. But there is always room for improvement to further satisfy our customers and shareholders. Overall the company has a promising future.

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: How would you describe the culture and the core values of Gustav Wolf?

Thomas Scholz: High-quality, technical knowledge, expertise and history are our core values. Our fully sufficient technical knowledge, experience and expertise are advantages for developing new products that fit customer requirements. With 130 years of history and an excellent employee team, we bring high-quality wire ropes to the elevator business. Strong partner relationships with our customers over the years makes us a strong competitor in the industry.

The culture of Gustav Wolf Suzhou is family, sunshine and learning. It gives our employees the feelings that they are respected and trusted. The company is home for our employees.

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: How do you motivate your employees?

Thomas Scholz: Motivation for me is not only about money. In my opinion, our employees appreciate recognition, trust, and respect. For instance, the company rewards good performance, and provides the employees with tasks in which they can demonstrate their abilities and take responsibility for achieving results. Also, as a manager I need to set a good example. Our company culture of family sunshine and learning is not only 3 words, it motivates our employees. Family means helping and trusting each other, and sharing quality time together, the employees’ family members are involved in our company activities as well. Sunshine stands for being open and positive, and learning means having the opportunity to learn from mistakes rather than being punished for them. Of course, our fair salary and bonus system motivates the employees too.

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: What do you do to ensure the continual growth and development of your business?

Thomas Scholz: The most important thing is to satisfy our customers’ demands by delivering high-quality products and outstanding service on time. This creates trust between us and our customers, which ensures that they continue to do business with us.

Furthermore, we strengthen our marketing activities to develop new market segments, and we see the potential to grow in several countries to which we have not yet expanded our business.

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: What is the biggest challenge Gustav Wolf Suzhou is facing today?

Thomas Scholz: The biggest challenge is that our competitors are becoming stronger, especially the Chinese ones that are rapidly developing. But I’m not worried about this challenge, because Gustav Wolf always goes the extra mile.

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: How do you face the competitions while the market is rapidly changing and becoming saturated?

Thomas Scholz: As I mentioned above, our Chinese competitors are getting stronger. However, our main focus is to deliver high-quality/ high performance ropes for mid and high-rise buildings, which requires a high standard of rope quality. Currently, our major competitors are still from overseas, therefore, to always stay on top of the business, we need to focus on specific issues such as service quality and price.

The changes in the elevator industry generate new opportunities for us as well, for instance, as some of the small elevator manufacturers are becoming bigger and stronger, there’s more opportunity to collaborate with them.

New elevator installations will not increase as before with the market becoming saturated, however, modernization of old buildings or buildings with no elevators will of course create a new market. Maintenance is a big part of the market as well, since many elevators installed in China are over 15 years old.

☛ELEVATOR AND ACCESSORIES: In your opinion, what is the development direction of elevator ropes in the future?

Thomas Scholz: It depends on how manufacturers in the elevator industry build their elevator systems in the future. The trend is that elevators are getting lighter, smaller and faster, which creates a longer lifetime and less maintenance cost. The whole system is changing, and that’s one challenge for the elevator rope industry.

We also see the changes from traditional steel ropes to belts. It drives us to use our expertise in developing new technologies to provide the perfect solution for the customers.